W. SHORE CHILD CARE 'IN CRISIS': Providers blame lack of spaces on government cutbacks
Goldstream News Gazette - Vancouver Island
By Rudy Haugeneder
May 30, 2007
EXCERPT

An astounding 600 preschool children are going without child care in a region from View Royal to Sooke.

And their wannabe working parents have no place to turn, says Nicky Logins, Sooke Family Services children and family services program manager.

"It's a crisis," she said of the huge waiting list that is rapidly getting longer as more young families with small children move to the West Shore.

There simply aren't enough child care operations, she said.

Worse yet, Logins said the number of child care providers is shrinking due to recent cuts in provincial child care funding that, if left alone or increased, would have helped more entrepreneurs get into the business.

The situation is so desperate that parents are quitting jobs because they can't find child care for their children, she said.

Yet other parents with more than one child must drive miles between different child care centres because so few operations have space to take more than one child, she added.

"This is a real nightmare," said Logins, whose program is funded by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

The aim of the program is to enhance the quality and availability of child care by supporting families and all people who care for children - licensed and small child care operations that don't need licences - throughout Colwood, Langford, Metchosin and Sooke to Port Renfrew, she said.

Logins said it is not uncommon for child care operators to get six or seven calls daily from desperate parents looking for a spot to place their children during the day - something child care businesses confirmed in interviews with the News Gazette.

"Yes, I get at least a half dozen calls each day," said a licensed child care operator who doesn't have any spaces for children aged five and younger.

"It breaks my heart every time I have to say 'no,'" said the operator, who didn't want her name used.

The cost for full-time child care on the West Shore is in the $700 a month range -- a figure Logins said is in the ballpark.

Another huge child care problem facing parents and child care operators is "the lack of trained staff" due largely to "low wages," said Logins. "Without proper staff child care licences become null and void."

She said there are also too few government inspectors to watch over the industry and ensure that child care centres are clean, operating safely and are not taking on more children than they are licensed for.

Due to the shortage, most inspections are complaint driven, said Logins.

The West Shore child care operator said because of the shortage of spaces, some child care operators are taking on more preschoolers than allowed.

And some of them run shoddy operations that don't meet minimum cleanliness standards, or feed youngsters nourishing food, she said, complaining that it's rare to get an inspector to check child car facilities once in two years even though regulations call for twice annual unannounced visits.

Her concerns about poorly-run child care centres are well documented.

A report published in News Gazette sister publication Monday Magazine just over a year ago found it's a serious situation.

Using the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Monday obtained all reports where a licensed day care facility received a high hazard rating from Vancouver Island health Authority inspectors between January, 2004, and June 1, 2005.

The reports covered a number of different kinds of facilities, including group day care, family child care, preschools and out of school care.

The stack of "high hazard" documents from that 17-month period are as thick as the Victoria phone book, said the story, and cover more than 120 facilities.

As well, over the same period, the inspectors handed out some 340 "moderate" health and safety hazard ratings.

Logins said the federal ruling Conservatives are just as bad as the provincial government in reducing child care funding.

She said the $100 monthly taxable benefit Ottawa now gives families for children under six to replace the higher level of child care funding provided by the previous Liberal government, has resulted in a reduction of child care spaces....